Screening coming up of locally produced film

PICTOU – Pictou County residents will have the opportunity to attend an advance screening of a locally produced short film before it’s sent to the 2013 Atlantic Film Festival.

“The Duffel Bag” was filmed by Tony DeCoste, and written, directed and edited by Chris Boulter, who said it was a completely local production with all the locations, actors and crew based out of Pictou County.

“I couldn’t be happier with the finished product, it looks great,” Boulter said. “The main cast has seen more or less a finished product. We thought it was going to be five or 10 minutes long. Turns out it was 23 and a half, but we’re pretty sure most film festivals accept anything under 45 minutes for short films, so we’re OK there.”

Theatre actors looking to transfer their skills from the stage to the screen formed RFM Productions, the local group that produced the film.

In October, Boulter described “The Duffel Bag” to The News as a film about different perspectives.

"It's a non-linear film. With a short film you can't do beginning, middle and end. It just doesn't work in five minutes," he said. "It's in a style of something like 'Memento' or 'Pulp Fiction.' There's not a direct route to the end.”

The short was filmed the first weekend of December, which Boulter said went relatively smoothly considering it was their first venture into film.

The crew filmed at locations such as downtown Pictou, the Celtic Circle in New Glasgow and Sam’s in Stellarton.

Since then, Boulter said he has spent hundreds of hours editing the footage and sound into the 23-minute final product.

“We thought we were basically done after we filmed it but, little did we know, that was only the beginning,” Boulter said. “The video editing took quite a bit of time and the sound editing took longer than that. But we’re at a point now where its pretty much done and it will definitely be done by the advance screening date.”

Boulter said an advance screening will be held at the Pictou Legion on Feb. 16. It is a 19-plus event with cocktails at 8:30 p.m., the screening at 10 p.m. followed by a dance until 1 a.m.

Boulter said this is not a commercial screening, but free will offerings will be accepted at the door, which will go towards covering the costs of the film. He added that this is the only advance screening of “The Duffel Bag” before it is sent to film festivals.

Boulter said in addition to the Atlantic Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, “there will probably be a few festivals on the horizon.”

“We’d love to have people come out, anyone interested in taking a sneak peek at the finished product, we’d love to have them out,” he said.